Inclusion in the Winter Olympics has the potential to rewrite the landscape of cyclo-cross, says GB national coach Matt Ellis.
"From a GB perspective it's massively exciting," he told Cycling Weekly this week. "It would, I believe, dramatically change everything."
He was responding to recent comments by Sebastian Coe in a Guardian interview, in which the International Olympic Committee member, and IAAF president, hinted strongly that the discipline could be included in the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps.
“I think there’s a good chance it’ll happen,” Lord Coe said. “And I think it’s come at the right moment, because [IOC president] Kirsty Coventry is certainly prepared to think differently about the programme....”
This latter point is good news, because a new take on winter sports would be necessary from the IOC were give cyclo-cross the green light. As it stands, only sports practiced on snow and ice are allowed in the Winter Olympic Games. Coventry has been reexamining this.
There is precedent for running cross on snow and ice – the current Val di Sole event, for example. But it isn't cyclo-cross as most of us know it – or as the world's top riders train for.
Coe also said that cross-country running, which campaigners have long backed for Olympic inclusion, could share the same course as the cyclo-cross.
Ellis, who has headed up British Cycling's cyclo-cross programme since 2017, added: "It would take time to have a knock-on effect, but I think on all different levels, it will massively change it.
"From the GB perspective, there's potential to put in place development programmes and more of an official funded pathway," he added.
The effects, he said would extend all the way down to the youth riders.
"You would open up the pool of development, he said. "You're going to broaden the pyramid at the bottom for development – there will be more riders involved in our pool of talent.
"There's a lot of short-term excitement," Ellis added, "but then once it starts getting a bit more notoriety, and then you get the actual Winter Olympics. Suddenly, you've got a whole new audience – a shop window for more people to come and get involved."
He cautioned about getting too excited about the prospect though, and referred back to a time during his career when precisely the same thing was being discussed – to no avail.
"When I raced, my first World Championships were in Slovakia. They were doing it there to showcase that cross could be run on ice, with an eye on trying to get it into the Winter Olympics," he said. "There's always been small rumblings, but this has been by far the biggest thing I've ever heard about."
As to when we would be treated to a definite answer, Ellis does not know, and the goalposts keep changing.
"They said it was going to be announced at last year's cross Worlds, and they said it might be announced in March after the IOC presidential election. And then I've heard again, it could be sometime in the autumn. At this point," he said, "I would hope sometime this winter."
